Film Festival News and Reviews: Sundance, Cannes and more

With this year's animated Cannes Competition entry, "Persepolis," directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, animation is high on Dreamachine's agenda. Additionally, three animated features are in the works for the company: "Fear(s) of the Dark," "Mia and Migoo," and "Brendan and the Secret of Kells." Dreamachine's co-chariman Hengameh Panahi first started promoting animated works by compiling Aardman Animation's early shorts into two feature length releases which succeeded in capturing top box office rankings in key territories. That was followed by films by Jan Svankmajer, Brothers Quay, Michel Ocelot and Sylvain Chomet's Oscar-n...

India's leading motion picture studio, Studio 18, and Virgin Comics announced the formation of a new production relationship to create a slate of teen horror properties for films, television, gaming and publishing. The new stories, which will be co-created and co-owned by both companies, will be re...

"To Each His Own Cinema" -- that's the rough English translation of "Chacun Son Cinema," the name of the 33-short-film program commissioned for the 60th anniversary edition of the Cannes Film Festival, that is screening tonight (Sunday). It's a fitting moniker for an event whose tastes range the ent...

Steve Shill, known for writing and directing episodes of HBO series such as "The Sopranos," "The Wire" and "Deadwood," will make his feature film directorial debut with "Silky Pink." Robbie Little and Ellen Little announced at Cannes that The Little Film Company will be representing the film, which Ellen remarks as "that rare mixture of high drama, biting humor, and nail-biting suspense." Chris Coen and Kelly McCormick are producing together along with Shill. Lorna Nowve, who brought the project to the Littles, will co-produce. It will mark the first collaboration of Mosaic Media and The Little Film Company. Little Film is introducing th...

Foresight Unlimited has added two new additions to its Cannes slate, including an adaptation of Franz Kafka's novella "Metamorphosis," and the murder thriller "Hangman," which is about a sex crimes detective whose mysterious childhood disappearance becomes her key to solving a series of murders.

Relativity Media has acquired the rights to produce the feature film "Mary Queen of Scots", starring Scarlett Johansson. The film about the epic Queen, who battles political enemies, scheming allies and affairs of the heart in order to reunite warring tribes of Scotland, will be produced by Relativi...

"I decided to make a different film this time," director Michael Moore told a room full of journalists about "Sicko," his new film which screened for the first time this morning. "I wanted a different tone (and) to say things in a different way." Indeed, "Sicko" marks a distinctly different approach...

In The Atelier entry "Ahasinwitai" ("The Fallen"), a young Sri Lankan man flees the violence of the city, venturing to a village where myth and legend still keep a strong hold on the inhabitants. Sri Lankan filmmaker Vimukthi Jayasundara previously won the Camera d'Or in Cannes 2003 with his first ...

In Semih Kaplanoglu's Atelier project "Milk", a young man who sells milk with his mother watches his world change dramatically as their Turkish town faces globalization and his mother falls in love. Kaplanoglu already has a distinguished record in film. His first feature "Herkes Kendi Evinde" won ...

A hard-hitting Romanian film set towards the end of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule is making the early running at Cannes Film Festival, with critics calling it a favorite only three days into the competition. "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," directed by Cristian Mungiu, is set in a single day and ...